


Comfort Creature

by NYWCgirl



Series: Soft Kitty verse [8]
Category: White Collar
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Whumpee Peter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-19
Updated: 2015-03-19
Packaged: 2018-03-18 14:37:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3573350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NYWCgirl/pseuds/NYWCgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter gets hurt in the line of duty and Neal is there to comfort him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Comfort Creature

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published on September 5th 2014.

It had happened so fast, that they had trouble reconstructing the events. Peter had gone undercover as an accountant but the suspect had made him and led him in a trap. An accomplice was waiting for Peter and had shot him from the back. Peter hadn´t stood a chance and was laying in a pool of blood when Neal and the rest of the team had finally made it to his last known location.

EMT´s were behind them and they started working on Peter, rushing him to hospital. They ensured everybody that it looked worse than it was and that Peter was probably unconscious because of hitting his head when he went down.

Neal joined Peter in the ambulance, Jones stayed to secure the crime scene and Diana was going to pick up El had her office to meet Neal and Peter in the hospital.

 

The trip to the hospital was going as expected, Peter regained consciousness in the ambulance, moaning against the noise and light. Neal grabbed his hand and held on reassuring Peter. The EMT pushed a pain killer, when Peter´s face contorted because of the pain ripping through him, and Peter relaxed visibly, letting his eyes slip shut again. Neal looked at the EMT, but he reassured him it was the combination of stress, pain and pain killer.

Once they arrived in the hospital, Neal was led to the admittance desk to fill out forms and Peter was wheeled through the doors into the inner workings of the ER.

Forty minutes later El and Diana rushed into the ER. Neal stood up and El walked up to him.

"Do you know anything?" she asked anxious.

"I am sorry, El, I am not next of kin, they are not allowed to tell me anything, maybe you will have more luck." Neal explained.

El walked over to the desk to ask for information. When she came back, she even could muster a small reassuring smile.

"They took Peter to surgery to remove the bullet, it is lodged in his arm, but it isn´t broken, so maybe it is not so bad as it could have been." El gave a small smile.

Diana went to get them coffees and the long wait started. Neal was entertaining some kids with folding origami animals from magazines.

 

"Anyone for Peter Burke?" a doctor came out and looked around.

"Over here." El called.

The doctor came over and took a seat across from El. He looked to Neal and Diana and El told him they were family to.

"The bullet entered his arm from the back, but it was a small caliber and it was lodged in the bone, but didn´t break it. So we removed it and if there are no further complications, your husband should make a full recovery."

"Can we see him?"

"He is being settled in a room as we speak, so I will ask the nurse to come and find you. But remember, even though he is not in an ICU bed, he will need his rest. And for the first couple of hours he will still be groggy from the anesthetics."

The doctor got up and said goodbye, before walking off to the desk to pick up a new patient.

Half an hour later, Neal was already getting anxious, when a nurse came over and asked them to follow her. She stopped before room 512 and opened the door, revealing a sleeping Peter. He was lying flat on his back and there were IV´s and monitors around him. El walked over and placed a kiss on his mouth. Peter shifted, but didn´t wake up.

Neal grabbed a chair and placed it next to the bed for El. He walked over to the other side and gave Peter a squeeze in his hand.

During the evening visitor hours, Peter started showing signs of waking up. He shifted uncomfortably in the bed and moaned. El pushed the nurse call button and a nurse came to ask how she could help.

"I think he is in pain." El explained.

The nurse checked Peter´s vitals and then tried to rouse him a bit more. Finally Peter opened his eyes and looked around blearily.

"I need to pee." he slurred.

Neal immediately stepped out of the room and the nurse helped Peter with an urine bottle. When nothing happened, El saw that Peter was nodding off again.

"Peter, you needed to pee, you can go now." El encouraged him.

"I need to go to the toilet." Peter mumbled.

"We know hon, just let it go." El gently coaxed.

After they had taken care of business, the nurse pushed a pain killer and Peter nodded off again. Neal and El left the hospital after Neal had made Peter a small drawing, which he attached to the side of the bed.

As it was late and El didn´t want to be alone, Neal stayed over in the guest bedroom.

In the morning, El prepared them breakfast and they went back to the hospital.

When they entered, Peter´s bed was inclined and he was awake. He looked fine, although tired and there were some lines in his face that showed that he was in pain.

"You should ask the nurse for more pain killers, hon."

"I am fine, I just want to go home and rest. They don´t give you any rest over here, every half hour, a nurse, doctor, orderly, cleaning maid is entering the room." Peter complained.

"We´ll hear more when the doctor comes on rounds."

Neal talked some with Peter about the case and then left to go into the office. El stayed with Peter to hear the verdict.

Late in the afternoon, the doctor told Peter that he would be discharged, as everything looked good, he needed to rest, no physical activities, he got a prescription for pain medication and antibiotics and orders to make an appointment with a physical therapist. He needed to come back at the end of the week for a wound check, and off he was.

Peter and El took a cab back home and El settled Peter in his bed. She called Neal if he would come over for dinner as he was still at the office.

When he arrived at DeKalb, he let himself in and found El upstairs sitting with Peter on the bed.

"Hi there, everything OK?" Neal smiled at the familiarity of the scene.

"Yeah, it just hurts when I move." Peter said it bit tight lipped.

"So, pretty much always." Neal summarized.

"Yeah. Pretty much."

"You keep Peter company, so I can finish dinner, Neal."

 

El went down to feed Satchmo and finish their dinner. She was almost ready when she heard Peter call out to her. She ran upstairs to see what had happened, when she saw Neal sitting on the bed, all fluffy and cute.

"Not now." she sighed.

"I will get the kibble, come on Neal, come."

Neal jumped off the bed and followed her down the stairs, where he was circling her feet until she got him the nice kibble. Once he was full, El could see his little belly protruding. It was cute to see that his belly increased in volume when he ate.

Neal walked back to the stairs and tried to climb them. It was slow going, with his full tummy and there were so many. So El took pity on him and carried him upstairs, followed by Satchmo.

She put Neal on the bed and he climbed on top of Peter and started purring and kneading Peter´s belly.

"Neal, that hurts, your nails hurt, even if you are this small." Peter hissed and grabbed a paw and lifted it to get Neal to stop kneading.

Finally Neal seemed to have found an acceptable spot on Peter´s chest and settled down. He started purring and Peter relaxed. The purring was sort of relaxing and soon Peter nodded off with Neal purring on his chest and his hand hanging from the bed on top of Satchmo´s head, who was laying next to the bed.

Peter woke up because his arm was sleeping and he didn´t have any feeling in it anymore. When he looked over, he saw that Neal was sleeping with his arm between his paws. Even though he didn´t feel his arm anymore, he couldn´t get it over his heart to move Neal, who looked like he needed Peter´s comfort as well as vice versa.

When El entered the room, this is the picture she took: please check out: <http://nywcgirl.livejournal.com/6914.html>


End file.
